Ever-shifting head count

During course of a workday, communities' "populations" change

Kenneth C. Crowe I, Times Union

By Kenneth C. Crowe II

Updated 6:33 am, Monday, June 24, 2013

Cindy Leffler makes lunch for Excelsior College employees on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, at Corporate Sandwich in Albany, N.Y. Leffler commutes every day from Petersburgh to run her restaurant business in the basement of Excelsior College. She's among the 70,0000 people who come to Albany every day to work. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Cindy Leffler makes lunch for Excelsior College employees on...

Cindy Leffler, right, reaches for a to-go container during the lunch rush on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, at Corporate Sandwich in Albany, N.Y. Employee Frances Berghela, left, assists. Leffler commutes every day from Petersburgh to run her restaurant business in the basement of Excelsior College. She's among the 70,0000 people who come to Albany every day to work. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Cindy Leffler, right, reaches for a to-go container during the...

Cindy Leffler restocks during a down moment during lunchtime on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, at Corporate Sandwich in Albany, N.Y. Leffler commutes every day from Petersburgh to run her restaurant business in the basement of Excelsior College. She's among the 70,0000 people who come to Albany every day to work. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Cindy Leffler restocks during a down moment during lunchtime on...

Cindy Leffler fills a soup order during lunchtime on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, at Corporate Sandwich in Albany, N.Y. Leffler commutes every day from Petersburgh to run her restaurant business in the basement of Excelsior College. She's among the 70,0000 people who come to Albany every day to work. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Cindy Leffler heads west every morning from her Petersburgh home to drive 32 miles in 75 minutes to open her restaurant, Corporate Sandwich, to serve other commuters who work at Excelsior College on Washington Avenue Extension.

As Leffler drives her 2010 Subaru Outback from eastern Rensselaer County, she's watching the odometer roll past 118,000 miles. She's part of the morning surge that sees nearly 50 percent of Petersburgh's 1,525 residents leave town to go to their jobs, according to the recent U.S. Census Bureau's study of how commuters influence daytime population numbers in a community.

Odds are the region's commuters crowd into Albany or Colonie for work. The city's population of 97,951 surges by 67 percent every weekday to 163,528, while Colonie's rises by 35.4 percent to 110,385 from 81,532.

"When I started coming to Albany, I was shocked by the volume of traffic," Leffler said.

She was more surprised to find out the population swing. It's not surprising, as people go where they can work.

Albany, Colonie, Schenectady and Troy remain the region's heart for employment. As of May, the region had some 450,000 jobs, including about 50,000 state positions, according to a state Department of Labor report.

"Knowing how a community's population changes during the day is crucial to emergency preparedness officials and other local planners," the Census Bureau said about its report tracking data from 2006-10.

Parking lots that are packed during the day and desolate at night show the change. The flow of part-time and full-time workers takes place in and out of office parks, state offices, factories, behind fast-food counters, at malls and at the other places of employment that fill these four communities.

The daily population change in Albany County — particularly Albany and Colonie — jumps 24.4 percent to 378,209, the 14th-largest percentage increase among counties nationwide, according the U.S. Census Bureau. Statewide, only Manhattan, New York County, has a bigger increase at 94.7 percent, also making it No. 1 nationwide.

Ferraro is one of those commuters going to Colonie, taking the Northway south from Clifton Park.

"The town of Colonie is at the center with I-90 and I-87. It might not be a city. Colonie borders the three other cities," Ferraro said about the suburban town's central location.

Martin Pickands gets to his job as an archaeologist at the State Museum in a brief 15-minute jaunt from his home just across the city line in Delmar,

"It's the opposite of extreme," Pickands said about the brevity of his ride.

As a suburban bedroom town, Bethlehem loses 13 percent of its population during the workday.

"It's a lifestyle," Huskie said of opting to have the long ride to work for living and raising his family in a rural town.

The farther one goes from the center of the Capital Region, the more likely a community will become a virtual ghost town as its residents drive to the region's hub for work. Drops of 30 percent to 40 percent in places like Greenfield, Pittstown, Schaghticoke and Duanesburg are the norm.

Saratoga County's suburban Northway corridor mimics these numbers. The daily population lost reflects the rush to work elsewhere.

Malta loses 29.4 of its population during the workday. It's followed by Moreau at 24.1 percent; Halfmoon, 22.2 percent; Milton, 16.4 percent; and Clifton Park, 10.1 percent.

Don't expect GlobalFoundries' nanotechnology center to change the daily tide. The job growth is not enough to offset the state offices and private office parks in Albany and Colonie, Ferraro said.

The commuting patterns also reveal the transformation of the Capital Region's small Hudson River cities into bedroom communities from mill towns in which factory hands walked to work. "We no longer have the manufacturing. We are a bedroom community and a safe community," Cohoes Mayor George Primeau said.

Cohoes' populations shrinks by 25.9 percent during the workday, even though its population in 2010 is up over the 2000 Census figure. Watervliet's streets have 18.5 percent fewer people during the week, while Rensselaer shrinks by 9.1 percent.

While Saratoga Springs is on the Northway, it is an economic hub for Saratoga County. It's day time population jumps by 29.6 percent to 34,576.

Marianne Barker has commuted from Wilton to her store, Impressions of Saratoga on Broadway, for 35 years. "It used to take me seven or eight minutes," Barker said. "The trip is now 15 to 20 minutes."